Should we do something fun and over the top or something different?

This was the question being posed in a meeting I attended many years ago. It’s common question-especially in regard to youth activities!

One of the adult men in the room recollected the “incredibly fun activities” of his youth and how they were expensive but memorable. He made the comment that these activities had changed his life and kept him in the Church and that they were the BEST memories of his life!

I agreed with him to an extent...I am sure they were memorable but were they always life changing?

At this point in his life, this brother was not very committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. For him, the amazing trips had been pleasurable but I don’t believe these trips really solidified his purpose and his commitment to God so how could they truly have been the BEST memories of his life?

Every expert in happiness will say that purpose brings lasting happiness, while pleasure does not offer the same depth of happiness and satisfaction.

Nephi, in speaking of the tree of life, made this observation:

“Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things…Yea, and the most joyous to the soul” (1 Nephi 11:22-23).

There is no greater purpose than pursuing a course where we can feel the love of God.

I was a Scoutmaster for two years. We went on an outing every month. We went car camping, hiking, and backpacking. Sometimes we cooked for the boys, sometimes they cooked, and sometimes it was every man for himself regarding their own food!

I learned many lessons from Scouting but here is one of the most important ones: I learned that the hardest hikes were the most remembered. I could call any of my Scouts today and ask what their favorite hike was and they would speak of freezing during a snow campout or of a long hike with a reward of swimming at the end or hiking in the pouring rain and trying to find dry shelter. From an outsider's perspective, they were definitely NOT the BEST! During these hikes, they suffered, they struggled and they survived.

They felt a sense of purpose-and that made them the best!

Our role as children of God is not to pursue every possible pleasure. Our role and our primary goal is to find the purpose of life. We find purpose by remembering who we are, why we are here, where we are going and what we need to do to move in that direction.

Pleasure is not the end goal of life, the Purpose is.

Pleasure is not what the celestial kingdom will be filled with-it will be filled with purpose!

Nephi put purpose over pleasure when he and his family traveled through the wilderness heading to the promised land. During the trip, his brothers could never see the purpose but continually missed the pleasures of home:

“Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy” (1 Nephi 17:21).

Nephi tried to teach them that purpose was far greater than pleasure, but they struggled with their adversity and lack of understanding of the ways of God.

Nephi shared some powerful promises that come as we pursue purpose, which is really pursuing the promised land (kingdom of God).

“And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness” (1 Nephi 17:3).

There is power and promises in purpose that are not found in pleasure.

Nephi also taught:

“And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led” (1 Nephi 17:13).

Nephi, with his depth of understanding of purpose over pleasure, made statements like this that his brothers could not make:

“And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us” (Nephi 17:2).

Laman and Lemuel were blinded by pleasure and so could never appreciate these sacred blessings.

When we seek for purpose over pleasure we fight against the blindness that comes from ease and are more fully able to feel of God’s love for us and recognize our sacred blessings!

And just like those expensive and extravagant activities that my friend experienced as a youth the best doesn’t always come from the BEST-sometimes the best is seen when we live through and turn to Him during the very worst!